THE ARISTOCRATS BIO MATERIALS
“More fun than fusion has any right to be.” – Rhythm
Magazine (UK)
Official Tres Caballeros Tour Bio
(shorter current version - for complete longer bio, scroll
down)
Fresh off their wildly successful 2013-2014 Culture Clash world
tour, The Aristocrats – by any measure the hottest new band in
instrumental rock/fusion today – rewrote their own rules for their
third studio album, Tres Caballeros, which is slated for release
in late June.
After two fairly raw trio albums, guitarist Guthrie Govan (Steven
Wilson, Asia/GPS), bassist Bryan Beller (Joe Satriani, Dethklok)
and drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani) set
up camp at legendary Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood, CA,
where Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Van Halen all
recorded landmark albums.
The result: Nine new compositions of greater sonic depth and
breadth than ever before, with unique textures and lush layering
augmenting the band’s preternatural ability to improvise both
individually and as a group at the highest levels possible. But not to
worry – it’s all still tempered with a steadfast refusal to take
themselves too seriously, and The Aristocrats are still having more
fun than a fusion band has any right to have.
“We’ve learned a lot since we started this band – four years, three
studio albums, two live DVDs and about a billion notes ago! – and I
think our latest offering reflects this in all kinds of ways,” says
guitarist Guthrie Govan. “The decision to road-test our new
material in front of a live audience before commencing the
recording process; the choice to record in a studio which had some
thoroughly inspiring rock'n'roll "mojo"; our sudden urge to become
more bold and experimental with overdubs rather than feeling any
pressure to record exclusively in a strict “trio” format… all of this
has had some kind of positive effect on the way the new record
came out. Plus, I think the material on this album is some of the
most interesting stuff we’ve ever written for each other, so… here’s
hoping our noble listeners will like the finished product as much as
we do!”
The Tres Caballeros tour will bring the band’s new musical
vision in trio form to stages across North America in their most
ambitious jaunt yet. The Aristocrats will be supported by fellow
rock/fusion power trio The Travis Larson Band.
********
FULL BIO (longer version)
The Aristocrats:
Instrumental Rock/Fusion’s “Rowdy New Democracy”
The word “supergroup” is tossed around a lot in instrumental
music circles, the result of a seemingly endless supply of efforts to
package together individual virtuoso players and make a band out
of them. But every once in a while, the group part of that shopworn
term becomes authentic and real. Such is the case with The
Aristocrats – guitarist Guthrie Govan, bassist Bryan Beller, and
drummer Marco Minnemann – who defiantly and joyously blow
the supergroup stereotype to bits, thrilling audiences and fans
around the world in the process with a preternatural band
chemistry that equals exponentially more than the sum of its parts.
Let’s get the requisite individual credentials out of the way:
* Guthrie Govan is arguably the hottest guitarist on the
international music scene today, and his 2006 solo album Erotic
Cakes was widely recognized as an instant classic. His top-level
touring experience (Asia/GPS, Steven Wilson) complements his
busy schedule as one the most in-demand guitar
clinician/educators in the world, and he was featured on the cover
of Guitar Player Magazine in July of 2011;
* Bryan Beller’s numerous credits include guitarists Steve Vai, Joe
Satriani, Mike Keneally (Frank Zappa), and the hugely popular
metal “band” Dethklok, borne of the Adult Swim (U.S.) animated
TV show Metalocalypse. His solo artist catalog includes three CD’s,
two DVD’s, and an instructional DVD for Alfred Publishing, and he
was featured on the cover of Bass Player Magazine in October of
2012;
* Marco Minnemann is widely seen by fans and peers as one of the
most gifted, innovative, cutting-edge drummers in the world. He’s
graced the covers of several drum magazines (including Modern
Drummer) and enjoys an ultra-versatile sideman career (Adrian
Belew, UKZ, Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani, Necrophagist). Perhaps
less known: He’s a multi-instrumentalist and compulsively
productive composer with nearly twenty CD & DVD solo releases to
date.
Despite their individual followings, The Aristocrats’ formation was
a matter of happenstance on a barely-paying gig. Beller and
Minnemann had a trio slot scheduled at the Winter NAMM show in
Anaheim, CA in January of 2011, and their guitarist was a late
dropout. Govan was a last-minute replacement who they met for
the first time in rehearsal, the night before the show. The electricity
was immediately obvious, with their unbeknownst-to-them shared
influences infusing a high-energy instrumental fusion with an
aggressive, playful, even cheeky edge. The audience response was
overwhelming, and the band formed practically by demand on the
spot. “The chemistry was so great,” recalls Govan, “that when we
came offstage we all said to each other, ‘This is working. We should
record this.’”
Three months later, the band convened in person – eschewing the
usual remote file sharing method in favor of actual live band
chemistry – to track the album. Consisting of nine tracks (three
contributions from each member), the material was a melting pot
of their respective influences, ranging from the seminal ’70s jazzrock fusion of Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra, to the
progressive rock of King Crimson and UK, to guitar heroes like
Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, to the absurdly complex and satirical
music of Frank Zappa and Mike Keneally, and even to ’90s groove
metal like Rage Against The Machine.
The ever-mischievous Minnemann’s song titles – such as
“Boing!...I’m In The Back” (borne from a publicly indescribable
incident in Russia) and “Blues Fuckers” (in which a typical blues
form is violated in every way imaginable) – along with Beller’s
“Sweaty Knockers,” prompted Govan to wonder if the band
shouldn’t be named The Aristocrats, after the infamous dirty joke
and movie of the same name. It stuck, and The Aristocrats were
born.
Tracked in just eight days, The Aristocrats [BOING, 2011] was
hailed as an instant classic in leading music publications
worldwide, appearing on many of that year’s top ten lists. Guthrie
Govan suddenly found himself on guitar magazine covers across
the globe. Music schools in particular felt the impact, as a wave of
students took to covering Aristocrats tunes much in the same way
Steve Vai’s Passion And Warfare inspired players a generation ago.
In less than a year, The Aristocrats went from doing a single pickup
gig to becoming one of the most sought-after live instrumental
rock/fusion acts in the world.
The next 18 months saw the band successfully tour both coasts and
the Midwest/mid-south of America, eastern Canada, the U.K.,
Benelux, France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Poland, Croatia,
Turkey, Greece, Israel, Korea, and Japan. The band’s live energy
and otherwordly chemistry was captured on the DVD/2CD
release BOING, We’ll Do It Live! The Aristocrats At Alvas
Showroom [BOING, 2012].
In 2013, the band released their long-awaited sophomore
album, Culture Clash, whose title is an allusion to the multinational makeup of the band (Govan is British; Beller is American;
Minnemann is German), as well as a sly reference to a scene from
the Coen-brothers film A Serious Man. They used the same
formula – three songs from each band member – but weaponized it
with the collective experience of eighteen months of touring as a
unit. The resulting material became more aggressive, adventurous,
and intense, embodying a refusal to rest on the laurels of the debut
album’s surprise success. Culture Clash debuted on the Billboard
Contemporary Jazz Chart at #8 …though no one would
immediately classify the band as jazz. (They're having way too
much fun for that!)
Another more ambitious 109-date world tour followed, bringing
the band across the entire U.S., to Europe, and this time to all of
Asia. Some of the more exotic tour stops included Vietnam,
Thailand, and Iceland. The around-the-world madness was
documented on the live CD/DVD Culture Clash Live, which was
released in early 2015. The universally positive reviews reflected
the accurate capturing of the band's madcap live show, with equal
parts virtuosity and absurdity. One particularly perceptive UK
reviewer (Echoes And Dust) noted it as follows: "There is so much
good humour infused in every bar that every track is a delight, a
charging rhino in a pink tutu."
********
Fresh off the wildly successful Culture Clash world tour, The
Aristocrats proceeded to rewrite their own rules for their third
studio album, Tres Caballeros, which is slated for release in late
June of 2015.
After two fairly raw trio albums, the band set up camp in February
of 2015 at legendary Sunset Sound studios in Hollywood, CA,
where Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Van Halen all
recorded landmark albums. The result: Nine new compositions of
greater sonic depth and breadth than ever before, with unique
textures and lush layering augmenting the band’s preternatural
ability to improvise both individually and as a group at the highest
levels possible. But not to worry – it’s all still tempered with a
steadfast refusal to take themselves too seriously, and The
Aristocrats are still having more fun than a fusion band has any
right to have.
“We’ve learned a lot since we started this band – four years, three
studio albums, two live DVDs and about a billion notes ago! – and I
think our latest offering reflects this in all kinds of ways,” says
guitarist Guthrie Govan. “The decision to road-test our new
material in front of a live audience before commencing the
recording process; the choice to record in a studio which had some
thoroughly inspiring rock'n'roll "mojo"; our sudden urge to become
more bold and experimental with overdubs rather than feeling any
pressure to record exclusively in a strict “trio” format… all of this
has had some kind of positive effect on the way the new record
came out. Plus, I think the material on this album is some of the
most interesting stuff we’ve ever written for each other, so… here’s
hoping our noble listeners will like the finished product as much as
we do!”
The Tres Caballeros tour will bring the band’s new musical
vision in trio form to stages across North America (summer 2015)
in their most ambitious jaunt yet, and the rest of the world can
expect the return of the live Aristocrats in late 2015 and throughout
2016.
********
The key thing to remember is that The Aristocrats are a true band.
Whether it’s about the music, the touring plans, the record artwork
and sequence, the business decisions, or what have you, everyone
has an equal say. Perhaps Guthrie said it best when he used the
phrase “a rowdy democracy of musicianship.”
It’s not just fusion. It’s not just shredding. It’s not even meant to be
taken seriously at times. It’s just the sound of three guys who did a
single pickup gig and suddenly discovered they had something
musically deep going on together…along with a propensity for
employing R-rated song titles.
So what do you call an act like that?
The Aristocrats.